英语背诵美文
在小学课堂教学中,通过课前诵读、课中嵌入、课后运用经典美文,能有效提升学生英语素养,增强文化底蕴,优化语文课堂,让课堂焕发出生命的活力。下面小编整理了英语背诵美文，希望大家喜欢!
英语背诵美文：艺术与生命Art and Life
My parents owned six books between them. Two of those were Bibles and the third was a concordance to the Old and New Testaments. The fourth was The House At Pooh Corner. The fifth，The Chatterbox Annual 1923 and the sixth, Malory’s Morte d’Artliur.
我父母两人共有六本书。其中两本是圣经、第三本是新旧约用语索引、第四本是《噗噗熊街角的屋子》(The House at Pooh Corner)、第五本是《1923年话匣子年鉴》(The Chatterbox 1923 Annual)，而第六本是马洛礼(Malory)的《阿瑟王之死》(Mortd’Arthur)。
I found it necessary to smuggle books in and of the house and I cannot claim too much for the provision of an outside toilet when there is no room of one’s own. It was on the toilet that I first read Freud and D. H. Lawrence, and perhaps that was the best place, after all. We kept a rubber torch hung on the cistern, and I had to divide my money from a Saturday job, between buying books and buying batteries. My mother knew exactly how long her Ever Readys would last if used only to illuminate the hap that separated the toilet paper from its function.
我发现有必要把书偷运进出家里，而且没有属于自己的房间时，对于于屋外厕所的供应品，我不能要求太多。我第一次读到弗洛依德和D. H. 劳伦斯，是坐在马桶上的，而或许，那终究是最佳之处。我们在马桶水箱上悬吊了一个橡胶手电筒，而我必须将周六那份工作赚来的钱，平分花在买书和买电池上面。我母亲清楚知道，她那些永备牌电池，如果光是用来照明区分卫生纸和其功能的空隙，可以维持多久。
Once I had tucked the book back down my knickers to get it indoors again, I find somewhere to hide it, and anyone with a single bed, standard size, and paperbacks, standard size, will discover that seventy seven can be accommodated per layer under the mattress. But as my collection grew, I began to worry that my mother might notice that her daughter’s bed was rising visibly. One day she did. She burned everything.
有一回我又把书塞在内裤里，好带进屋里。我必须找个地方把书藏起来，而任何人，若拥有一张单人床，标准尺寸的，以及平装书籍，标准尺寸的，就会发现，床垫底下每一层可容纳七十七本。可是当我的收集品增加时，便开始担心母亲会注意到，用眼睛就看得出女儿的床正逐渐升高。有一天她真的发现了。她全给烧了…。
I had been brought up to memorize very long Bible passages, and when I left home and was supporting myself so that I could continue my education, I fought off loneliness and fear by reciting. In the funeral parlor I whispered Donne to the embalming fluids and Marvell to the corpses. Later, I found that Tennyson’ s ‘Lady of Shalott’ had a soothing, because rhythmic, effect on the mentally disturbed. Among the disturbed I numbered myself at that time.
……我成长过程中，必须背下很长的圣经段落。到我离开家庭，自己赚钱以便继续求学时，便靠背诵来抵挡寂寞和恐惧。在殡仪馆里，我稍稍对着防腐香料液念约翰 ?多恩(Donne)、对着尸体念安德鲁?马维尔(Marvel)。后来，我发现丁尼生(Tennyson)的〈夏洛特〉(“Lady of Shalott”)，因为有节焰感，对于心智失衡者具有一种安抚作用。在那个时候我把自己也算在失衡者之列。
The healing power of art is not a rhetorical fantasy. Fighting to keep language, language became my sanity and my strength. It still is, and I know of no pain that art cannot assuage. For some, music, for some, pictures, for me, primarily, poetry, whether found in poems or in prose, cuts through noise and hurt, opens the wound to clean it, and then gradually teaches it to heal itself. Wounds need to be taught to heal themselves.
艺术的疗愈力量并非夸大其词的幻想。我奋力留住语言，语言因而让我心智正常，具有力量。到现在仍是如此，而且我所知道的痛苦，无一不透过艺术而得到舒缓。对某此人来说，是音乐，另一些人，是绘画，对我来说，是主要的是，不论出现在诗歌或散文中，诗能够切穿嘈杂和伤痛，将伤口打开以清理之，然后逐渐教导它自我疗愈。
The psyche and the spirit do not share the instinct of damaged body. Healing is automatically triggered nor is danger usually avoided. Since we put ourselves in the way of hurt it seems logical to put ourselves in the way of healing. Art has more work to do than ever before but it can do that work. In a self-destructive society like our own, it is unsurprising that art as a healing force is despised.
心灵和精神不像受损了的身体具有一种本能。疗愈不会自动给引发，而危险也通常无以避免。既然我们会让自己受伤，那么让自己得到疗愈也是合乎逻辑的。比起以往任何时候，艺术要做更多的工作，但是这份工作它是做得来的。像我们这样一个自我毁灭的社会里，艺术之为一种疗愈的力量，会受到鄙视，并不令人感到讶异。
For myself, when I returned to my to my borrowed room night after night, and there were my books, I felt relief and exuberance, not hardship and exhaustion. I intended to avoid the fate of Jude the Obscure, although a reading of that book was a useful warning. What I wanted did not belong to me by right and whilst it could not be refused tome in quite same way, we still have subtle punishments for anyone who insists on what they are and what they want. Walled inside the little space marked out for by family and class, it was the limitless world of imagination that it possible for me to scale the sheer face of other people’s assumptions. Inside books there is perfect space and it is that space which allows the reader to escape from the problems of gravity.
对我自己而言，夜复一夜回到借来的房里时，我感到放心且满溢，而非困苦和疲惫，我意图避免《无名裘德》(Jude the Obscure)的命运，虽然阅读那本书是很有用的警告。我所想要的，并不理当属于我，而虽然它也不能以完全同样的方式拒我于外，但是任何人若坚持要做某种人或是想要某些东西，我们仍然会给他很微妙的惩罚。当我被关在家庭和阶级为我所划定的小小空间里，是想象力那片无限的天地，让我得以刮除他人那些假设的表层。书中自有完美的空间，就是这个空间，让读者能够逃避地心引力的诸般问题。
英语背诵美文：生活的艺术The art of living
The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go. For life is a paradox: it enjoins us to cling to its many gifts even while it ordains their eventual relinquishment. The rabbis of old put it this way:" A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open."
生活的妙诀在于懂得何时抓紧，何时放松。因为人生就是个悖论:它让我们抓紧人生的多种恩赐，同时又要我们到头来把这些赐予放弃。老一辈犹太学者是这样说的:“一个人握紧拳头来到这个世界，但离开这世界时却是摊开手掌的。”
Surely we ought to hold fast to life, for it is wondrous, and full of a beauty that breaks through every pore of God' s own earth. We know that this is so, but all too often we recognize this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what was and then suddenly realize that it is no more. /p>
毫无疑问，我们应该牢牢抓住生命，因为它奇妙。它有一种在上帝创造的世界里无孔不人、无处不在的美。我们大家都知道这一点，可我们却常常是在回首往事想起它时，才能认识到这一真理。此时我们会突然发觉它已不复存在了。
We remember a beauty that faded, a love that waned. But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered.
我们能记起已经凋谢的美，已经消逝的爱。可是，我们更痛苦的回忆是，我们没有在鲜花怒放之际看见那种美.没有在别人以爱对我之时也以爱回报。
A recent experience re-taught me this truth. I was hospitalized following a severe heart attack and had been in intensive care for several days. It was not a pleasant place.
最近一次经历又使我领悟到这个真理。一场剧烈的心脏病发作后我被送进医院。接受几天的精心护理。医院可不是个令人偷快的地方。
One morning, I had to have some additional tests. The required machines were located in a building at the opposite end of the hospital, so I had to be wheeled across the courtyard on a gurney.
一天上午，我得加做另外几项检查。我要用的医疗器械安装在医院另一端的大楼里。所以我只有躺在轮床上由人推着穿过院子才能到达那里。
As we emerged from our unit, the sunlight hit me. That's all there was to my experience. Just the light of the sun. And yet how beautiful it was -- how warming, how sparking, how brilliant! I looked to see whether anyone else relished the sun's golden glow, but everyone was hurrying to and fro, most with eyes fixed on the ground. Then I remembered how often I, too, had been indifferent to the grandeur of each day, too preoccupied with petty and sometimes even mean concerns to respond from that experience is really as commonplace as was the experience itself: life's gifts are precious -- but we are too heedless of them.
当我们走出病房时，阳光正照在我身上。当时也没有什么别的，只不过就是这阳光。而这时的阳光多么温暖、多么耀眼、多么辉煌!我打量着别人是否也在欣赏这太阳的金色光芒。可是，人人都来去匆匆。大多数人的口光只盯在地上。这时我想到过去自己义何尝不是对每天的壮观景象视而不见，一头埋在细小的、有时甚至是卑鄙、自私的事务中，而对日常的奇观麻木不仁呢?从这次经历所获得的顿悟确如经历本身一样的平凡。生命的赐予是宝贵的，可惜我们对它们太掉以轻心了。
Here then is the first pole of life' s paradoxical demands on us : Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be reverent before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute.
这就是人生向我们提出的矛盾要求的第一个方面:不要因为太忙就忽视了生活中令人惊奇、令人敬畏的东西。每天黎明开始就要恭谨从事。抓紧每个小时，抓住宝贵的每分钟。
Hold fast to life...but not so fast that you cannot let go. This is the second side of life' s coin, the opposite pole of its paradox: we must accept our losses, and learn how to let go.
紧紧抓住生活——可不要紧得使你不能松手。这就使生活的另，面一矛盾的另一方:我们必须接受损失，学会放松。
This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passionate being can, nay, will, be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this truth dawns upon us.
这并不是轻易就学到手的。特别是当我们年轻时，认为世界是么但由我们掌握的，东西就能够一只要我们自己满腔热情，全力以赴地渴求，不管什不，一定会—得到，此时‘这一道理尤其难学。是，随着生活的继续前进。我们不断地面临各种现实，慢慢地但也是肯定地使我们明白了第二条真理。
At every stage of life we sustain losses -- and grow in the process. We begin our independent lives only when we emerge from the womb and lose its protective shelter. We enter a progression of schools, then we leave our mothers and fathers and our childhood homes. We get married and have children and then have to let them go. We confront the death of our parents and our spouses. We face the gradual or not so gradual waning of our strength. And ultimately, as the parable of the open and closed hand suggests, we must confront the inevitability of our own demise, losing ourselves as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be.
在生活的耳个阶段卜，我们都要蒙受损失—但也是在这个过程中，我们得到成长。我们只有在脱离母胎、失去它的庇护时，才能开始独立生活。我们要进各级学校，继而告别父母，告别儿时的家。我们要结婚生子，继而送走子女。我们要面对父母、配偶的死亡。我们要面临体力或快或慢的消退。最终，正如松手与握拳的比喻那样，我们自己也得走向不可抗拒的死亡，失去原有的自身，失去我们以往的或梦想过的一切。
英语背诵美文：最低等的动物The lowest animal
Man is the only animal that robs his helpless fellow of his country-takes possession of it and drives him out of it or destroys him. Man has done this in all the ages. There is not an acre of ground on the globe that is in possession of its rightful owner, or that has not been taken away from owner after owner, cycle after cycle, by force and bloodshed.
人是唯-一种抢夺无助同类国土的动物——占有同类的国土，将其驱逐出境或者将其摧毁。人类代代从事着这种行径。地球上没有一寸土地属于正当的主人，要么就是循环反复地通过烧杀抢夺、流血牺牲在不同的主人间易手。
Man is the only Slave. And he is the only animal who enslaves. He has always been a slave in one form or another, and has always held other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another. In our day he is always some man's slave for wages, and does the man's work; and this slave has other slaves under him for minor wages, and they do his work. The higher animals are the only ones who exclusively do their own work and provide their own living.
人是唯一的奴隶。人也是唯一奴役他人的动物。人总是以这种或者那种形式成为奴隶，义总是以这种或者那种方式把其他奴隶牢牢地掌控在手中。如今，人为了领工资而成为某个人的奴隶，为那个人做事;这个奴隶又拥有其他奴隶，并且支付更少的工资，让他们替他干活。高级动物是只给自己于活、自谋生路的人。
Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people's countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for "the universal brotherhood of man"-with his mouth.
人是唯一的爱国者。他在自己的国土.上傲然而立，号召维护国家，蔑视其他国家，支付重金进行大量的军事暗杀活动，攫取其他国家的财产，防止他们抢夺本国财产。在一次次争斗的间歇，他洗掉沾满双手的鲜血，口口声声叫喊着“为广大同胞”而战。
Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion-several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven. He was at it in the time of Caesars, he was at it in Mahomet's time, he was at it in the time of the Inquisition, he was at it in France a couple of centuries, he was at it in England in Mary's day, he has been at it ever since he first saw the light, he is at it today in Crete-as per the telegrams quoted above*-he will be at it somewhere else tomorrow. The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out, in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste.
人是信奉宗教的动物。人是唯一信奉宗教的动物。人是唯一拥有真正宗教的动物—有好几种宗教。人是唯一爱邻如己的动物，如果邻居信仰邪门歪教，他会切断邻居的喉咙。人竭尽全力地为兄弟开辟通往幸福和天堂的大道，从而已经使地球变为一片坟场。恺撒时代，人热衷于此;穆罕默德时代，人热衷于此;宗教法庭时代，人热衷于此;几个世纪以来，人在法国热衷于此;在英国玛丽女王时代，人热衷于此;自从人第一次看见光明，人就热衷于此，如今在克里特岛。人热衷于此—正如以上引用的侮则电报中提到的人将来在其他某个地方还会热衷于此。高级动物不信仰宗教。有人告诉我们，今后人们会摈弃宗教。我不清楚其中缘由。看起来这值得怀疑。
Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal. Note his history, as sketched above. It seems plain to me that whatever he is he is not a reasoning animal. His record is the fantastic record of a maniac. I consider that the strongest count against his intelligence is the fact that with that record back of him he blandly sets himself up as the head animal of the lot: whereas by his own standards he is the bottom one.
人是理性的动物。原因如下。我认为可以开诚布公地进行讨论。的确，我的研究表明人是丧失理性的动物。注意以下几提及的历史。人是没有理性的动物，在我看来乃寻常之事。人的记录即是一个疯子的荒诞记录。大量记载显示人把自己当作万物之灵;然而，依照人自己的标准，人是最低级的，我认为这是反对人的智慧的最强有力的证据。
In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which the other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. Among my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They lived together in peace; even affectionately.
事实上，人愚蠢之极。不可救药。其他动物轻易掌握的简单之事，人却无法学会。我的一项实验就证明了这一点。我花了一个小时教一只猫和一条狗交朋友，我把它们放在一个笼子中。我又花了一个小时教它们和一只兔子、一只松鼠和几只鸽子交朋友。最后。教它们和一只猴子交朋友。它们和平相处，甚至情深意切。
